Adigun said ASUSS invoked the constitutional provision of freedom of association to free secondary school teachers from NUT’s stranglehold, which he accused of using blackmail as a weapon to achieve its aim.

Adigun described the NUT allegation in the petition by its Chairman Kayode Akosile that ASUSS members were a “handful of desperate people who are ready to cause crisis in the state having lost out in previous elections conducted in the past” as baseless and spurious.

He said many secondary school teachers now enjoy a better welfare package under ASUSS unlike when they were under NUT, which he claimed failed to justify teachers’ check-off dues deducted from their salaries.

Adigun, who produced many documents to substantiate his claims, maintained that ASUSS is duly registered as a trade union by the Federal Ministry of Labour.

He said the National Industrial Court in Enugu was explicit in its judgment that NUT can only collect the check-off dues of its members.

Adigun said: “We urge Akosile not to be impatient over this matter. He has to wait for the outcome of the suit he instituted before the Ekiti State High Court, challenging our operation in the state rather than resorting to jackboot means.

“We never played politics during Governor Kayode Fayemi’s government. It was even the NUT that played politics.

“The union was given a bus by Fayemi and the governorship candidate of Labour Party, Opeyemi Bamidele, and no bus was given to us.

“Where now is our relevance under that government if what NUT said was the truth?”